The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided to postpone Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly elections by one week.
The elections which were earlier scheduled to hold on March 11 will now hold on March 18, 2023, according to a source in INEC.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and his commissioners were in a meeting.
SaharaReporters learnt they were discussing the feasibility of holding the governorship and House of Assembly elections this Saturday or whether to postpone the polls by one week.
The move by INEC comes on the heels of Wednesday’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja granting it permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that preventing the electoral umpire from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect the forthcoming governorship and State Assembly elections.
It dismissed objections by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the request.
According to the court, allowing the objections by Obi and his party would amount to “tying the hands of the Respondent, INEC”.
An emergency meeting of top management of the commission was called after the judgement.
The source told SaharaReporters that over 170,000 BVAS machines were deployed to polling units for the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25.
“It will take time to reconfigure about 170,000 BVAS machines before Saturday. The time is too short,” the source said.
The meeting which commenced around 7 pm was still ongoing as of the time of filing this report.